12/26/2001
WEBMASTER OF THIS SITE HAS BEEN INCAPACITATED FOR LAST TWO MONTHS,
DUE TO PAIN FROM SHOULDER AND BACK INJURY. TOO MANY DEVELOPMENTS
IN COBELL V NORTON CASE TO UPDATE ALL. STARTING BACK WITH BEGINNING
OF NORTON CONTEMPT TRIAL, DECEMBER 10.

NORTON TRIAL:
PLAINTIFFS WILL SEEK PRELIMINARY INJUNCTION
12/14/2001. WASHINGTON, D.C. - Thompson testimony continued today and
attorney for Indian plaintiffs will file papers this weekend asking the court
to issue
a preliminary injunction that would
force the Interior Department to distribute trust
checks immediately
and impose court supervision of its computer operations.

NORTON TRIAL:
EIGHTH DAY OF TRIAL
12/19/2001. WASHINGTON, D.C. - SENIOR TRUST OFFICIAL VOUCHES FOR
REPORT'S ACCURACY ON FAILURE OF $33 MILLION IIM COMPUTER SYSTEM
Judge Wasn't Told by Interior That TAAMS Was Flunking Tests
Lamberth
has made it clear he is looking for ways to speed up the trial,
which has been slowed to a crawl by 200 pages of government objections to
Kieffer's findings.

NORTON TRIAL:
JUDGE LAMBERTH MISLED
12/21/2001. WASHINGTON, D.C. - QUARTERLY REPORTS FROM MARCH
2000 TO THE PRESENT HAVE MISLED JUDGE ON TRUST REFORM PROGRESS
False information in the reports is a key element of contempt charges
against Norton and Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs Neal McCaleb.

NORTON TRIAL: Special Trustee Thomas N. Slonaker testifies
1/08/2002. WASHINGTON, D.C. - Thomas N. Slonaker, the senior official
entrusted by Congress with overseeing reform of the Individual Indian Monies
(IIM) trust, told a federal judge today that two Interior Department
Secretaries and their top aides filed misleading reports with the court and did
virtually nothing in the past two years to comply with orders from Congress and
the judge . . . . . .

JUDGE SUGGESTS GAME-PLAYING BY INTERIOR MAY BE BEHIND INTERNET SHUTDOWN
1/09/2002. WASHINGTON, D.C. - The federal judge hearing contempt charges
against Interior Secretary Gale Norton suggested today that her department's
slow pace in reconnecting its web sites to the Internet and issuing overdue
checks to 43,000 individual Indian trust beneficiaries may be due to a case of
"Washington Monument syndrome."

NORTON TRIAL: 15th Day
1/09/2002. WASHINGTON, D.C. - Daryl White, the Chief Information Officer at
Interior since March 1998 testified today that he played only an advisory,
oversight role in the development of a $36 million trust data computer system
that does not work and that an Interior consultant has recently recommended
should be scrapped.
White's testimony marked the completion of the case by the Cobell
plaintiffs.

REPORT ON NORTON'S FAILURE
TO SAFEGUARD TRUST DATA
IS SUFFICIENT EVIDENCE TO HOLD HER IN CONTEMPT, JUDGE SAYS
1/15/2002. WASHINGTON, D.C. - Burden Will Be on the Secretary to Show Why She
Should Not Be Sanctioned for Ignoring Internet Security Issues

Indianz.Com Article
1/17/2002. In a July report addressed to Norton, Congressional investigators
told her that the information technology systems at Interior's financial center
in Denver, Colorado, suffered from several vulnerabilities. Although attempts
were made to fix known deficiencies, the General Accounting Office (GAO) still
found numerous problems, including the inability to detect intrusions, lack of
sufficient access control measures, poorly configured software, weak password
protections and the lack of a contingency plan. (more details in article)

NORTON TRIAL:
Press Release
2/05/2002. WASHINGTON, D.C. - A federal judge sharply criticized Interior
Secretary Gale Norton today for a "totally improper" attempt to circumvent a
court order sealing the personal financial data of Indians who are challenging
Norton in court over mismanagement of the Individual Indian Monies (IIM) trust.

NORTON TRIAL:
Press Release
2/06/2002. WASHINGTON, D.C. - Elouise Cobell, the lead plaintiff in class
action litigation to force reform of the failed Individual Indian Monies (IIM)
trust, called on Congress today to support placing the trust in temporary,
court-supervised receivership until more than a century of government
mismanagement and neglect can be overhauled.

NORTON TRIAL:
Press Release
2/11/2002. NORTON FACES QUESTIONING ON CONTEMPT CHARGES FOR FAILURES AS TRUSTEE
FOR MISMANAGED IIM TRUST
WASHINGTON, D.C. Interior Secretary Gale Norton will take the witness stand at
10 a.m. Wednesday in federal court here, facing serious questions by lawyers
for individual Indian trust account holders about mismanagement of their funds
and her failure to live up to her fiduciary obligations as trustee for the
Individual Indian Monies (IIM) trust.

NORTON TRIAL:
Press Release
2/13/2002. WASHINGTON, D.C. Interior Secretary Gale Norton’s
testimony makes the case that a federal judge should remove the trust
from Interior’s control and place it in the hands of a receiver.
- Next hearing in the contempt proceeding set for Feb. 20.

WEB ALERT
2/15/2002. The Cobell plaintiffs have filed a new motion with the court asking
that
the Secretaries of Interior and Treasury be found in contempt for
suppressing evidence and advancing legal arguments that they knew to be
false.
The plaintiffs’ motion is posted at www.indiantrust.com.

2/20/2002. Just posted at
www.indiantrust.com
:
Transcripts of Secretary Norton's contempt trial.
Click on Transcripts, then click on Contempt Trials.

PRESS RELEASE
2/21/2002. WASHINGTON, D.C. – "You Were Duped. The Plaintiffs Were Smoked."
The Cobell plaintiffs argued today that a federal judge should do "whatever
this court needs to do to end this nightmare" . . . . .

ST. PETERSBURG (FLA.) TIMES EDITORIAL
3/07/2002. New steps needed for Indian trust
The federal courts have waited long enough for the U.S. government to
sort out its sorry management of the American Indian trust fund system.
. . . . . call for the job to be taken from the Interior
Department and given to a court-appointed receiver.

PRESS RELEASE
3/15/2002. WASHINGTON, D.C. –
JUDGE CHASTISES INTERIOR FOR FOOT-DRAGGING ON IIM CHECKS;
COURT READY TO MOVE FORWARD ON CONTEMPT FOR 39 MORE.
Indian trust beneficiaries depend on the leasing fees and royalties from
Indian-owned lands for basic necessities of life.

A MATTER OF TRUST:
3/22/2002. The Case of Cobell v. Norton
Symposium to be held
March 26, 2002
at Gonzaga University Law School, 721 N. Cincinnati, Spokane, Washington. For
further information, please contact Bonnie White, Gonzaga University
School of Law, at 509-323-5791. Click above for details of Symposium.

Washington Post
3/30/2002. WASHINGTON, D.C. –
U.S. Is Penalized by Judge In Indian Trust Fund Case.
Government Is Told to Pay for Using Delay Tactics.
By Neely Tucker, Washington Post Staff Writer

WEB ALERT
5/06/2002. The
http://www.indiantrust.com/
web alert service has been restored. We regret any inconvenience this has
caused and have included links to significant documents that you may have
missed in the past month.

WEB ALERT
5/28/2002. This morning the Court Monitor sent a letter to Department of
Justice counsel Sandra Spooner and informed her that if she objects to his
investigation she may bring those objections to the Court. History and links to
documents at www.indiantrust.com in this Web Alert.

Cobell v Norton - Update
6/04/2002. On Tuesday June 4, 2002, plaintiffs filed a motion with the Court
to have Treasury Secretary O'Neill and Interior Secretary Norton and
responsible employees and counsel held in contempt of court for perpetrating
another fraud upon the Court.

Cobell v Norton Update
7/11/2002.
Eighth Report of the Court Monitor
The Eighth Report of the Court Monitor was released this afternoon. Please go
to http://www.indiantrust.com/ to view the entire report. Email we received
listing his most relevant conclusions is posted at above Update link.

Congressional Native American Caucus Announces
7/17/2002. U.S. REPRESENTATIVES DALE E. KILDEE AND J.D. HAYWORTH,
CO-CHAIRS OF THE CONGRESSIONAL NATIVE AMERICAN CAUCUS, ANNOUNCE THAT
THE HOUSE VOTED TODAY TO STRIKE TWO ANTI-INDIAN PROVISIONS IN THE FY 2003
INTERIOR APPROPRIATIONS BILL.
Please share this Release.

Cobell v. Norton Web Alert
7/17/2002. Today the United States House of Representatives voted
overwhelmingly to strike language proposed by Secretary Norton and the White
House that sought to undermine the
Cobell v. Norton
litigation and limit the Court-ordered accounting. The striken language
sought: (read Alert for additional information)

Cobell v. Norton Web Alert
7/23/2002. Plaintiffs in the multi-billion dollar Cobell v. Norton trust
litigation filed the first in a series of bills of particulars against
government officials who are the subject of pending contempt charges. The
filing seeks to hold former Deputy Solicitor Edward Cohen in criminal contempt
for destroying massive quantities of trust records that U.S. District Court
Judge Royce C. Lamberth ordered produced.

[NOTE: 7/30/2002 through 8/16/2002 posted on 8/21/2002. Webmaster on vacation.]

Cobell v. Norton Web Alert
7/30/2002. Last night, the Cobell plaintiffs filed their second in a
series of at
least 50 individual Bills of Particulars in accordance with the March 15,
2002 instructions of Judge Lamberth to clarify the misconduct of . . . .

Cobell v. Norton Web Alert
8/01/2002. This afternoon, plaintiffs requested that the Court Monitor
investigate the White House counsel, Office of Management and Budget and
Department of Justice attorneys who aided Secretary Norton and Deputy Secretary
Griles in compelling Tom Slonaker to resign his position as Special Trustee for
American Indians and suppressing his testimony before the Senate Indian Affairs
Committee. (Above link goes to pdf file of letter at www.indiantrust.com)

Inspector General Report
8/06/2002. Posted at indiantrust.com ". . . finally, protect the public
interests for which the Department is responsible, in this case those of the
Individual Indian Trust accountholders."

Cobell v. Norton Web Alert
9/17/2002. Court finds that Secretary Norton and Assistant Secretary McCaleb committed 4 counts of fraud and held them in civil contempt. Further, the Court found that Norton and McCaleb engaged in litigation misconduct by failing to initiate the accounting ordered by this Court.

Cobell v Norton - Court Memorandum and Order
03/12/03. Court sanctions defendants again for deliberately submitting a false affidavit to defraud the Court and plaintiffs that the General Accounting Office conducted historical accountings of individual Indian trust assets when they, in fact, maintained that they had never conducted an accounting of any individual Indian trust assets.